Navigating Women’s Friendships in American Literature and Culture

1. Introduction - Kristi Branham and Kelly L. Reames.- I. Adolescent Friendships and Identity Formation.- 2. Fleur’s Kinship, Pauline’s Whiteness: How Colonization Shapes Friendship in Louise Erdrich’s Tracks - Rachel Griffis.- 3. ‘What obligation do I have toward her?’: College Girl Friendships and Self-Actualization in Hangsaman and The Bell Jar - Julie Ooms.- 4. Entangled Roots: ‘Old Friends’ Reconnected in Ruth Ozeki’s All Over Creation - Marie Drews.- 5. The Gothic’s Creation of Women’s Friendship in Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House - Megan Peabody and Mikkaila Poulin.- 6. Lovers and Friends of the Spirit: Celie and Shug’s Quare Friendship in The Color Purple - Tangela Serls.- II. Alliances and the Promise of Women’s Friendships.- 7. ‘Dorothy and I had quite a little quarrel’: Clever Banter and the ‘Language’ of Female Friendship in Anita Loos’ Gentlemen Prefer Blondes - Krista Aldrich and Emily Wiktor.- 8. ‘We Will Work Together’: Interclass Women’s Collabships in Progressive Era Novels - Alicia Beeson.- 9. Political Progress and Social Stall: Failed Friendships, Feminist Fissures, and Mary McCarthy’s Modern Reform Novel - Cassandra Fetters.- 10. ‘The Tenderness of One Woman for Another’: Female Friendship and Revolt in the 20th-century Works of Mary E. Wilkins Freeman - Susan Stone.- III The Transformative Power of Authors’ Friendships.- 11. ‘These Sweet Trees’: June Jordan, Alice Walker, and Womanist Friendship - Cheryl Hopson.- 12. Chicana Visions: Ana Castillo and Cherríe Moraga’s Friendship, Falling Out, and Forgiveness - Leigh Johnson.- 13. Beat-Associated Women and Female Relationships in Carolyn Cassady’s Off the Road - Josette Lorig.- 14. Reframing Black Women’s Relationships:&nbsp; Exploring the Bond between Alice Dunbar-Nelson and Edwina Kruse through an Unpublished Manuscript - Monet Lewis-Timmons.<div><br></div>